Jack Phytos's Demigod adventure
by Nate Marquez
Summary: Follow Jack Phytos on his Demigod journeys
1. Chapter 1

Listen. Being a Demigod is hard work. It may seem cool how we kill monsters, or use magic weapons, but trust me it isn't fun at all. I've lost a lot doing the thing I do. Man, I wish I could go back to before all of this happened. It had been obvious from the start I wasn't a normal kid, but not this abnormal. In pre school I was doing things like tripping, and making people fall down at will, or giving kids such bad static shocks, that they had to go to the nurse's office. Not typically good signs for a toddler. I lived most of my life as an outcast. I remember my first day of fourth grade. I had just moved from another state. Did I mention I'm a foster child. I get passed around faster than Tantalus's kids flesh at the dinner table. The reason I was passed around so much was because like I said I wasn't normal. And every time I would do something… Not normal (Which was almost all of the time.) I was passed on to the next guy. A perfect example of this is my first day of fourth grade. "Good morning !" I said with joy. "Good Morning." She replied with a smile on her face. "We were just introducing ourselves to the class you can go next if you'd like she said." I nodded and marched up to the front of the class. "Hello." I said nervously. "My name is Jack, and ummm…" I then heard some snickers around the room. Right off the bat these kids thought I was a laughing stock. , seeing that I was struggling gave me something to break the ice with. "Tell the class a talent you have." . "I am good at spelling." I said. What a dumb move. Everyone knows Demigods have dyslexia, which makes it near impossible to spell. "Spell the word Decathlon." Said a girl in the audience, I mean class. At this point there is no difference, with those kids judging me so intently. I shot the girl a dirty look and attempted to spell the word decathlon. Lets just say it wasn't pretty. One kid started laughing uncontrollably. Then another girl joined in, and then another, and pretty soon the whole class was laughing. "Spell stupid!" Screamed one kid. That got everyone laughing even more. I was seized with a strong anger powerful enough to make Poseidon's trident look like a children's toy. Suddenly lightning struck from above shaking the entire school. "AAAH!" Everyone screamed. Then a burst of wind knocked the kid who had asked me to spell stupid right out of his chair. Long story short, I was not allowed to return to that school, or that foster home. The worst times hit about a year ago. It was my first year of middle school where everything started getting really weird. For the first time in ages I hadn't been kicked out of this school in the first few weeks. Everyone in the school hated me except my friend, Ken. I can't tell you how many times Ken had gotten me out of trouble. "It's okay Jack, everyone blows up the science lab once in awhile, just let me talk to the science teacher." And sure enough no expulsion, not even detention. Ken is great, the only problem is I have to save his butt a lot too. Because Ken is confined to a wheelchair, and because he has a big mouth when he gets in a scrape with the school tough guy, guess who has to save him? If you guessed me you were right. Sometimes I don't know where he finds some of the guys he does. He has to find the biggest toughest guys for me to fight. Most of the time I win. It really started getting wild, when one day after school, me and Ken were walking home, and some Old lady asked if we would like to pet her dog. "No thank you!" Ken said a little too rude. "Ken." I said giving him an elbow. "I would love to." I said to the lady. "Oh, well what a nice young man you are, I wish you all were like that." She said shooting Ken a dirty look. As I bent down to pet the dog, he broke off the leash and ran into an alleyway. "Oh dear, my Sonny!" "Will you please go get him she said. I looked at Ken. He shook his head but i ignored him. I ran into the alley after him. "Sonny, here boy!" I called. After a while it was looking hopeless. Then I suddenly heard a thunderous roar. I turned around to see a Huge lion, with a goat coming out of its back.


	2. Chapter 2

As I gazed upon a huge monster, the most horrifying part was the collar around its neck that read "Sonny." He then roared while baring his disgusting teeth. "AAAAH!" I screamed. The old lady then called from behind me.

"Such a shame a nice young boy like yourself will have to die so soon, but I hate Demigods, and Sonny was hungry. You have a strong scent boy, I'm surprised I was the first to get to you. Oh well."

She then slowly melted from a kind old lady to a disgusting beast, something straight out of a science fiction novel. I wanted to figure out what a Demigod was, and why she called me one. Then, suddenly right before my eyes she wriggled her snake-like tentacles on the ground, and her leash for Sonny turned into a fiery whip. I was trapped. If I went one way, I would be killed by Sonny, and if I went the other, I would have to deal with a deformed snake like old lady. And I'm sure neither of those deaths would look good on my tombstone.

Then, suddenly, Sam galloped in and tossed me a dagger. At first the idea that I had gone insane was still undecided, now I was sure of it. "Okay." I remember thinking. "My best friend has suddenly lost a life-long disability in a matter of seconds, and I was about to battle against two creatures straight out of a Lord of the Rings novel."

I then snatched the dagger out of mid air and nodded a thank you over to my friend, trying to ignore the fact that he could walk now, and I pondered my decisions. Death by fiery whip wielding old lady, or monster? I thought.

I had made up my mind, I then ran over to the old lady and threw my knife, and it came flying at her quickly because just then a gust of wind had just hit. The knife gashed her arm hard, and she bled. Not the normal type of blood, but a gross disgusting goop you would expect to see from a monster. Holy Cow! I remember thinking. I can't believe I just did that.

"You imbecile!" she said, as she cracked her flaming whip against my face. Confidence boost lost. "Don't just stand there, Sonny, kill him!"

Sonny mindlessly obeyed and came running at me faster than Hermes on rollerskates. All I could do was wait until I was either barbecued, or trampled by the ferocious beast. "Hey!" called Ken, "Big boy, chew on this!" As he said that he threw a nasty looking dart at the thing, but it bounced harmlessly off of its skin.

Sonny then turned around to finish me off, knowing Ken couldn't do anything to stop him, then right as Sonny inhaled ready with a single breath that would blow me to ashes, Ken jumped in front of me absorbing the burn. He let out a loud BAAAAA! As he fell to the ground obviously too injured to get up.

Normally, at this point most kids would give up, game over right? But then I remembered all of the times Ken had saved me, all of the times I had been spared because of him, and it just happened. I let loose every bit of anger I had in me through hell-like winds, and storm. I don't really know what happened because for most of it I was blacked out, but from what Ken tells me it was pretty cool.

When it was all over Sonny was laying on the ground injured and burned as if he were struck by lightning. Then, a devilish looking bat-like monster crawled out of the ground. "Kratos sent us to clean up your mess." She said with a deep shriveled voice as she looked at me. "Wait please!" begged the snake-like grandma, "Please don't"-she was cut -off as she turned to dust and blew away with the wind, along with Sonny. "Bye Echidna!," called the disgusting bat-like creature.

I'd heard that name from class. It was in our Greek mythology unit. Echidna was the mother of all monsters! "Wh-Who are you?" I asked the creature. "I'm your worst nightmare from the depths of the underworld!" She screamed in her disgusting voice. Then, she lunged at me, and I thought it was all over. But, then a strange boy came out of nowhere, as if he were from the shadows. The boy then slashed down on the creature right before it could pounce on me.

"W-What the heck was that?

"Chiron, will explain all of that later. The name's Nico Di Angelo, and you are a Demigod."

"A Demi what?" I asked sounding quite stupid.

"A Demigod. Basically, it means you're in a lot of trouble kid."


	3. Chapter 3

"Wait… Explain to me again how the Greek Gods are real?" I asked for about the millionth time that knight. "The Greek Gods are just real, like you and I.

"They shift with western civilization." It had been a few hours since we had decided to camp there.

Yup, right there in the alley. I wanted to stay in a hotel , or something like that. When asked about it Nico said,

"We can't stay anywhere else because A nobody would let two strange boys and a Ken in off of the street, and B not many people are going to believe us when telling them about how the Greek Gods are real and all that."

"What about Kratos, that ghoulish hag that had replaced Echidna mentioned him." I asked. I felt bad for overwhelming him with too many questions, I really did, but when something as crazy as that happens you have to ask questions.

"I honestly don't know, you will have to find that out on your own."

He replied crushing every hope that I had of making a little sense of things. I buried my head in my hands.

"I know it's a lot to take in, it makes you feel overwhelmed." He said trying to comfort me. At this point Ken was starting to move in his sleep. That was a good sign. I remembered all of the good times me and Ken had, had. That lit a smile up on my face.

"Here." Nico said waking me up from my dreamlike trance. He had kicked a dagger across the alley, it skidded to a stop right at my feet. I picked it up and played with it for a while, slashing at the air as it were the Echidna.

"Take that you disgusting old grandma!" I said.

"What?" Nico asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing." I said.

"It's getting kind of late, you go to bed I will keep watch." Said Nico. He didn't have to tell me twice, I quickly passed out. The next morning Ken was wide awake. So awake in fact that the first words I heard when I woke up were

"Jack, thank god you are ok!"

That also woke up Nico. "What's wrong!" He immediately yelled.

"Nothing's wrong." I answered just as my stomach rumbled as if Gaia herself were in there.

"I'm hungry too." Said Ken.

"You're always hungry." I said. He then let out a "BAAA!"

"I'll go get some food, just wait here." Said Nico. About 30 minutes later he came back with a huge bag of breakfast, and some coffee for Sam. He gulped it down even before Nico could give us our food. Nico handed me a huge breakfast sandwich, that I was sure I could eat almost as fast as Ken, who was already asking me for a bite. Nico then tossed Ken an aluminum can. Which he ate gladfully ate!

"Did you really eat that whole thing!" "Yeah...Duh Satyrs eat trash all the time, we're part goat you know." Said Ken as if I were dumb. That last part startled me the most. I hadn't realized it, but Ken was covered in fur. I looked over to see his wheelchair flipped over, collecting dust. Just the other day we were walking home normally, I couldn't believe that all of that had happened in just one day.

"Where did you find this?" I said as I looked down at the food.

"There is a cafe just down the road." Nico said. "Let me show you." Ken and I sat down our delicious food and followed him. Before we left I grabbed the knife Nico had given me, just in case. Finally after we got there he showed us a dumpster filled with fresh breakfast. "They throw out a lot of food here a little early." He explained. Just then a shimmering rainbow appeared on the ground.

"Nico." Said a boy with dark brown hair, and dark green eyes. It was like we were facetiming through a a half horse, half man stepped into view. Surprisingly seeing that didn't even phase me, after all that I had seen in the last few days seeing a horse man was like seeing a squirrel at a petting zoo. " Chiron needs to speak with you in private." Said the boy looking at us.

"You guys go sightseeing or something, I'll catch up to you two in a second. Said Nico. Basically that was a nice way of saying "Beat it, I have someone more important I need to talk to.". We then walked around aimlessly for quite some time looking around for even the slightest bit of excitement. So far the most exciting thing we had seen was guy gnawing on a corn dog on Broad Street. Finally we grabbed a map and found the directions to places like the Hershey factory (Which had way too long of a line), and The Statue of Liberty. Even though I had lived here for a full year I didn't know there were so many things to see. I guess, I had been caught up with school so much that I didn't really look around to see all the beauty that was right there. An hour or two of "sightseeing" had passed until we started to feel about ready to go back to our alleyway and rest.

"Wait before we find Nico, I have to use the little goats room." Ken said.

"Fine." I replied. We found a restroom near a rest area on Canal Street. As I was waiting I felt a hand grab my shoulder, on instinct I grabbed the knife Nico had given me.

"Relax!" Said a hurried, scared Nico.

"Where have you been, you told us to sightsee about 2 hours ago, and we haven't seen you since?" I asked.

"I've been a little sidetracked."

"With what?" I asked. I then heard a loud manly voice yell

"There he is, get him!"

"Who are they I ask.

"Just some fellow children of Hades." Nico says through gritted teeth. We try and run, but they appear in front of us, kind of like how Nico did when he killed the hag. There are 3 of them, and they look mean. These guys made the war god Ares in all of his might look like a children's cartoon character. Me and Nico diverge and I slash my dagger at one of the goons, but of course he dodges and knocks me in the stomach with the flat of his spear. Let me tell you that knocked more wind out of me Anemoi having a sneezing fit. As I clutched my stomach on the ground (unable to move of course) the goon stomped on me like I was an ant. He then put me in some sort of headlock and put a knife up to my throat. I knew I was finished, but for some reason they didn't kill me off right then. I realized they were waiting for Nico.I silently cheered on Nico as he swung his sword at one of his oversized brothers. Eventually he was overpowered and put in an arm lock.

"Let's get out of here, Kratos is waiting!" Said one of them.

"Not yet, I want our little brother to absorb how he hopelessly lost!" Said another. Then a gift from the heavens came out of the bathroom, (I never thought I would be saying that.) Ken came out and watched as we were held in place.

"D-Do something!" I managed to squeak out from the choke hold. Then he screamed

"Cover your ears!" and he whipped out reed pipes.

"This is not the time for music." I thought. But I covered my ears anyways. I didn't hear much, but I did hear a muffled sound that sounded like a dying whale. I was immediately dropped from the hold, and in unison Nico, Ken, and I took off running seeing that the goons were subdued from the terrible music.

"You did it!" Nico screamed. "That song should have took some mastering, good job!" Nico congratulated him again.

"It wasn't supposed to do that." Said Ken with an "oops" expression on his face. Nico and I shrugged as we continued running. Then they appeared in the shadows behind us.

"Dang you Hades," "Why did your genes have to be so good!" I thought.

"Get back here!" One of them yelled.

"I thought that finished them off!" Said Nico. "Oh my gods!," Nico said. "Why is it always Hades!" He shouted.

"Over there!" I shouted pointing at a fishing boat.

"It's way too far away we'll never reach it in time!" Said a panicked Ken.

"I know a shortcut!" I replied confidently. We then took the shortcut cutting across New York City traffic, and running through a pizza shop, finally reaching the docks where the ship was held. We were about 5 feet away before,

"Where are you going, we've got your pet!" Shouted one of them. I looked back to see Ken with 2 knives to his back.

"Go on without me!" Ken said. I then made a split second decision, I ran at the meatheads knowing I would lose, but maybe I would give my friends a chance at getting away. But suddenly a bolt of lightning struck at the feet of them causing them to drop their knives.

"Come on!" Nico shouted! Me and Ken quickly jumped on the boat, and before they could recover I pushed our boat forward with a wind boost. There was still a lot i didn't know about these strange abilities. We could hear them cursing at us until we were about 200 meters away. "Yes!" We cheered.

"Wait…" Said Nico stopping our celebration in its tracks. "Where is this ship headed?" He asked.

"Camp Half-Blood, Long Island." Said a male voice. Then the same boy we saw in the rainbow message walked out of the captains booth.

"Percy!" Nico said, sounding as if about 10 pounds of stress had just left his body.

"I heard you guys needed some help," He said with a relaxed voice "so Chiron pulled some strings and here I am." "Now, next stop Camp Half Blood." Percy said. I didn't know where, or what that so called camp was, but one thing I knew was that I was in good hands now. Good Half Bloodly Hand


	4. Chapter 4

The night passed quickly, but slowly at the same time. No one could get any sleep, because everyone was still full of adrenaline from the fight, but no one would talk. Talking would have just been wrong, everyone was trapped in their own thoughts, too deep to come out. Eventually we got to this "camp", I had heard so much about. I could tell this from Nico's "It feels good to be home" expression, when we pulled up close to an island. As I looked down into the water I saw what looked like a girl, Nico must've noticed my surprised expression,

"Those are just Naiads," He said as if they were annoying, or pests, "They are friendly water spirits, but they do tend to flirt alot with campers."

"Right." I said nodding along. Just then one of them winked at me, and swam deep into the depths of the ocean. That gave me butterflies in my stomach. We were pulling closer to shore, "Focus," I told myself sternly, _I'm about to pull into camp, I can't look weak, or nervous from personal experience, I know one of the worst things you can do when going into a new place is show fear._ I'm an expert at this, I've been to middle school. As we pulled into the docks I saw Percy wave at someone, it looked like a girl, but I couldn't really tell from a distance. As we pulled in, quite a crowd gathered. "

Campers contain yourselves!" said the same half horse half man we saw in the rainbow message. When we stepped off of the boat we were swarmed with 1 million questions like, "Who's been hunting all of the demigods?", and

"Was it dangerous out there." One of the questions I wasn't too particularly thrilled about,

"Who's the new punk!" Said a masculine looking girl. I stared at her, giving no response. She then shook her head at me real slowly giving me a, "You're dead later" look. I didn't know what I did, but later I would suffer her wrath more than ever.

"Campers," the horse man said loudly, "make way for them!" The horse man then whispered something in Percy's ear like " _I will talk to you later, thank god the boy is okay. With Kratos after him, it's a wonder he is still alive."_ "Hello, my name is Chiron , Jack was it?" He asks with a cheerful look. I nod. "Please, come into my office." We then walk across camp , as I marvel at the beauty of the strawberry fields, and pegasus stables and walk into a large house. We then sit down in a chair, and he says, "Is there anything you would like to share about your strange encounters in New York?" He asks with a relaxed expression. And then I break down, I tell him everything from the day I met Nico, all the way up until now. "Interesting." He said with a nod. "Your blood is strong Demigod, I wonder if-" Before Chiron could finish he was cut off by Nico. " Chiron it's time for capture the flag." Nico said as he burst through the door. Nico must've realized my puzzled expression. "Here," he said tossing me leather armor and a helmet.

"What-" I asked. "You'll need this too he said cutting me off. I glanced to see a shiny 2 foot sword. "Woah!" I said as I picked it up.

"Nico come on, the games are about to start!" Said a very loud Percy.

"What is this exactly?" I asked Nico.

"It's like regular capture the flag… Only this capture the flag has blood, sharp blades, and a big chance that you won't come back alive." He replied. Before I could ask any more questions, Percy told me to hurry up, and he wished me good luck. Oh boy. That means… Nico and Percy aren't on my team. I just kept running, until I was at a fort faced to face with curly headed boy, whom I could tell was a wisecrack just based on the mischievous smirk on his face.

"You must be the new guy Percy was talking about." He said quite welcoming. "The names The Full Size McShizzle, but people call me Leo." "Leo" said.

"Ignore him." Said a girl. "I'm Calypso, and that's Leo, your name is Jack right?" She asked. I nodded.

"We need an extra scout!" Said a manly voice.

"He'll go!" Said Calypso pointing at me. _Dangit! Well now I'm done, I don't even know where I am, or whats going on, and now I'm a scout on some capture the flag team._ Come on said a tall, fast looking guy. I had been so caught up in the moment, that the man was standing right in front of me.

"I'm Conner." He said.

"I'm Jack.' I answered shyly.

"Nice to meet you Jack, now let's talk strategy."


End file.
